yes its free but its a headache esp if one party involves ur parent, n u have to take them from their busy schedule
i remember when there was this new policy of 5sims per nic n rest will b blocked which never happened n that also caused great deal of pain n then this biometric verification came along so we all went to the franchise n there was so much rush at the franchise because of that, so thats the kind of headache u have to deal with, n there was no empty seat either, luckily knew the owner so got it done n finally got rid of extra numbers on nic of each one so almost every one has just one or 2 at max registered