A stabbing in the city centre last year, which happened in view of a security camera that was not working, has lent some urgency to the rollout.
Last month, councillors asked for an update on the plan for upgraded closed-circuit television (CCTV) coverage in the central business district after public pressure.
Infrastructure service group manager Erin Moogan presented the updated report at an infrastructure committee meeting yesterday, noting the project aimed to have the first tranche of new cameras installed before Christmas.
Ms Moogan said there were two streams to the procurement work under way — network design as well as vendor selection, hardware supply and installation.
"There is some amount of risk related to that [process] but we do believe it is manageable and is required for us to be able to meet those deadlines that council is seeking by the end of the year."
Cr Grant Dermody asked how much input there had been from police in relation to which areas came first in the rollout, saying it had been raised in conversation they were not properly consulted.
Cr Lesley Soper said there had been a solid amount of input from police, community patrol and Maori wardens in the implementation strategy.
Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook said she did not want the council to lose sight of one of the "triggering events that actually drew our attention to the fact of how bad our CCTV was".
That was the murder in Don St of Chad Parekura, when even though there was a camera, it was not in service.
Crime in the city centre contributed significantly to the police workload, she said.
Network design, components purchasing and implementation of the project would take place from August 1 to November 20, the staff report to the committee said.
Stage 1 of implementation in the city centre would take place from November to December.
Stage 2, that focused on the rest of the central business district, would occur in January and February.
Stage 3 of the rollout, in South City and Bluff, would take place from February to March, the report said.
Earlier this year, councillors unanimously approved the recommendation to increase the budget of the upgraded CCTV project from $250,000 to $1 million to cover the wider city.
