Is it safe to invest in ETF?

I plan to invest in SBIGold ETF or Goldbees as in SIP instead of buying physical gold (say for 10 years or more) and sell and convert it to physical gold when needed be. My question is, is it safe to invest in ETFs? Or is there an other alternate way as well?

There are 2 ways to invest in gold, Gold EFTs or Gold mutual funds depending upon ones interest, if you want to make money in the gold market go for Gold Mutual funds and if you want to convert it to physical gold go for the ETFs(Goldbees is the best), take a survey and jump into it.

I spoke to the guys from Quantum AMC sometime last month about similar fears that I had.
Their ETF is the QGOLDHALF which is the equivalent of half gram of gold.
This is what the gentleman, Chirag Mehta who oversees the Gold ETF had to say.

Q. Do you invest in Gold or Gold derivatives/bonds etc? What is the guarantee for my money which I have invested in the ETF?
A. The ETF is backed by physical gold. It is invested in 99.99% pure gold bars which are stored in a vault somewhere (he didn't tell me where ). The bars are all audited regularly but once a month, he personally visits the vault and takes a count.

I haven't spoken to any other fund managers but I am happy enough if this practice is followed across all fund houses.
All I want them to do is take my cash, buy gold with it and keep it secure.