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Surabaya. Fearing a fire or explosion, trains carrying fuel cars have been ordered not to brake anywhere near a newly discovered gas leak on the Porong highway in East Java.

“The locomotives that pull the fuel tankers are purpose-built to pull 22 of these cars, and the extra weight makes sparking more likely when they brake,” Herry Winarno, a district spokesman for state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia, said on Wednesday.

He added that the braking ban did not apply to commuter trains on the same line, which pulled only six cars.

The gas leak is part of the mudflow disaster spreading throughout Porong and Sidoarjo since May 2006, widely blamed on a gas-drilling activity gone wrong.

KAI has also imposed a speed limit of 10 kilometers per hour on all trains passing the area, citing subsidence caused by the mud that has seen the rails sink by up to two centimeters in some parts.

Twenty commuter trains and two fuel trains pass the Porong highway every day, Herry said, adding that a ban was also in place on passengers throwing cigarette butts out of the trains between Porong and Sidoarjo stations.

He said announcements to that effect would be made at each station, with conductors enforcing the ban along the way.

The gas leak is the 169th to appear since the mudflow began.

The latest fissure has been confirmed to contain excessive levels of flammable methane.

Authorities have cordoned off affected sections of the highway, and say the need to complete construction of the new road connecting Siring to Porong is more pressing than ever.

Scheduled for completion this year, the road construction project is being held up because only 65 percent of the necessary land has been purchased.