Mumbai, March 9 (IANS) Reliance Mutual Fund Wednesday said it had received over 200,000 applications for its recently concluded gold fund making it the largest option that has been exercised for a systematic investment plan.

"Through the systematic investment plan, we have a commitment of Rs.350 crore every year for the next 10 years, thereby locking in approximately Rs.3,500 crore," said Sundeep Sikka, chief executive of Reliance Mutual Fund.

"This is in addition to the lumpsum investment of close to Rs.500 crore. And going by the encouraging response, I'm sure we will see more of such product offering from the industry participants," Sikka added.

"The allocation of investment in the fund would be completed by March 14."

Systematic investment plans call for periodic investments into instruments for long-term gains in a planned manner, as opposed to lump sum investments that are generally made in mutual funds.

The gold fund was one of the first-of-its-kind offering in the Indian market, since it enabled investments in paper form, without having to open a dematerialised account. In other similar funds, a demat account is mandatory.

Reliance Mutual Fund is managed by Reliance Capital Asset Management, which manages $24 billion in assets across mutual funds, pension funds, managed accounts and hedge funds. It is part of Reliance Capital, one of India's largest financial services companies.