Tata Steel Ltd, the world's No.8 steelmaker by output, reported quarterly profit from its Indian operations more than doubled, beating forecasts, on strong demand from the auto and construction sectors.

The company, which acquired Europe's second-largest steelmaker Corus in 2007, said standalone net profit rose to Rs 11.92 billion ($258 million) for the fiscal third quarter to end-December from Rs 4.66 billion a year ago.

Tata Steel will report consolidated third-quarter results, to include the Corus numbers, next month.

Quarterly net sales of the local operations rose to Rs 63.07 billion from Rs 47.51 billion.

A Reuters poll of 12 analysts had estimated standalone net profit of Rs 10 billion on net sales of Rs 58.3 billion.

The Indian operations account for a quarter of the group's annual global capacity of about 30 million tonnes.