Officials said cost of the project, which has been delayed by well over a year, could escalate from Rs 600 crore as the rupee has weakened against the dollar, though hardware and bandwidth rates have come down.

Changes in technology, new cameras, details with specifications of responsibilities of each member of the consortium, legal liabilities for data and storage and handling of data have been sorted out. Eight parties had bid for the project but legal and funding issues came in the way of awarding the tender.

The state had announced four years ago that it would develop a 6,000-strong CCTV network in the city in the wake of 26/11. It also planned to later extend the infrastructure to Pune and Nagpur.

The ambitious project involves installing 14 cameras every square kilometer. The project was put on the fast-track after three blasts rocked Mumbai last July.

Tenders were issued and 10 bids received. Three consortia were shortlisted after a technical and commercial evaluation of their proposals by an expert technical committee of BEST, BMC, IIT, state IT department and Mumbai Police.

The committee met on Monday evening to finalise the tender to be issued in the next couple of days. Pune Police and municipal commissioner were called for the meeting to help in the project design. Pune has been a target of terror attacks in the past couple of years.

“The tender should be out by the end of the month. We have reworked it,” said J K Banthia, chief secretary, Maharashtra.