Yep, in preparation for my trip to CCU later this month via China I double checked the situation with my local CGI. Its seems the MHA has now announced that the conversion is free and you should do it till end of the year. So I bit the bullet and tried the process. Unlike koresh in the US, here you just fill in the form online, print it, attach self attested copies of the PIO card and passport to the form with the picture and mail it to the local CGI. A week later I got a notification from the 'helpdesk-oci' @gov.in that the application was complete and the online status tracker showed it was queued for printing. ^

No fees charged at all. ^