While the $18 million project was unquestioned, planning commissioners at one point hesitated approving it after hearing testimony about another special management area permit issued two years ago to the state Department of Transportation.

The permit in question involved the construction of a new alien species inspection building and the lack of inspectors needed to run the facility when it opens. Greg Westcott, a member of a Maui Alien Species Task Force, told commissioners there was an agreement that the inspectors would be hired for the building targeted for completion in September.

Now only eight inspectors are in place, and 14 are needed, Westcott said. The eight inspectors do not exclusively work at the airport but are assigned to various locations around the island, he told commissioners.

He cautioned the commission against acting on the Transportation Department's most recent special management area permit request, given the department's inability to hire inspectors for its alien species inspection facility.

Commission members considered the implications of the permit for the alien species facility, but they eventually approved the special management permit for the baggage-handling facilities after hearing the two projects were not related.

The hiring of alien species inspectors is the responsibility of the state Department of Agriculture, said Gene Matsushige, an Airports Division project manager. The Transportation Department provided the money to pay for the inspectors' salaries and the alien species inspection facility, and state transportation officials have done all they can to move ahead with building the alien species inspection facility, he added.

State plans call for demolishing the existing baggage-handling equipment building and building a new structure for checked baggage equipment. The new building would be adjacent to and south of the existing baggage screening area.

Six explosive detection system screeners will be installed behind the current ticketing/check-in terminal area. New baggage-handling equipment also will be installed to take bags from the individual airline ticket counters to the screeners to check for explosives.

Suspect and unknown bags that fail the first two levels of security screening would be automatically transferred to a new explosive trace detection room for inspection.

The move to install upgraded explosive detection devices at Kahului Airport makes Maui the first Neighbor Island to take such a security measure. No new employees are expected to be hired because of the installation of the new detection equipment at the airport.

The tighter baggage-handling security is a requirement of the federal Transportation Security Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was established in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

Honolulu International Airport also is tightening is baggage security measures to safeguard against the smuggling of explosives onboard aircraft.